Abstract
Introduction: Travel health centers offer very important health services for individuals traveling abroad. Little is known about the health status and knowledge of travel health, travel-related diseases, and vaccinations of individuals who travel abroad and visit travel health centers. This research studied travelers who visited a travel health center in order to evaluate their behavior and knowledge of travel health, travel-related diseases, and vaccinations. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted with 407 participants between June and September 2018, the busiest time for international travel. It was administered at a travel health center attached to the Directorate General of Health for Border and Coastal Areas of Turkey. Results: The results indicated that 78.6% of participants did not obtain travel health insurance before their trip, and 63.6% did not prepare a travel health kit for their trip. Moreover, 61.4% reported that they did not know about the health conditions and practices of their destination country. Individuals traveling for business did more research on travel-related diseases compared to those traveling for other reasons. Additionally, 61.3% of individuals who rated themselves healthy sought information about the health conditions at their travel destinations. Conclusion: The current study showed that the knowledge and healthcare practices among international travelers are inadequate. Raising awareness is needed to create a positive behavioral change in people’s travel health practices.
Highlights
Travel health centers offer very important health services for individuals traveling abroad
This study was administered at a travel health center attached to the Directorate General of Health for Border and Coastal Areas of Turkey
As well as issuing international vaccination certificates, this center provides services to citizens such as health examinations before traveling, counseling about health problems that may arise during travel and prevention, medicines that may be needed during travel, and vaccinations
Summary
Travel health centers offer very important health services for individuals traveling abroad. This research studied travelers who visited a travel health center in order to evaluate their behavior and knowledge of travel health, travel-related diseases, and vaccinations. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted with 407 participants between June and September 2018, the busiest time for international travel It was administered at a travel health center attached to the Directorate General of Health for Border and Coastal Areas of Turkey. By 2030, the annual number of travelers is estimated to reach nearly 2 billion globally.[1,2] This increase has drawn more attention to the attitudes, practices, and knowledge of travelers regarding travel healthcare, travelrelated diseases, and vaccinations.[3,4] Increasing mobility leads individuals to better research the health conditions of their destinations. The current trend indicates that the sources of information on travel health will increase and diversify in the future.[5]
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